Some Things You Need to Know
by Morning Lilies
Summary: In the interest of lookiing out for his best friend, Ron has a few conversations to let some people know a few important things.
1. Mr and Mrs Weasley

**A/N: So this has been sitting on my computer for a very long time and I keep coming back to it and not being happy with it. But I like the idea and I finally decided to just go ahead and publish it. I don't think there are enough stories about Ron and Harry's friendship and it is an amazing one. Plus I also think Ron does a lot more subtle stuff like this than the books give him credit for :D **

"Arthur, I'm a bit worried," Mrs. Weasley said to her husband as she set the dinner plates to washing themselves.

"About what, dear?" Mr. Weasely mumbled absently as he scanned the evening Profit.

"Well, I'm sure it's nothing, but don't you think it's a bit peculiar that Harry hasn't written back to Ron all summer?" Mrs. Weasley asked, sitting down beside her husband at the table.

Mr. Weasley lay aside the paper and took his glasses off to rub them clean with his sleeve. "I don't know," he said finally. "I'd have expected at least one letter from all that we heard about last year, but you know how twelve-year-old boys are. They get caught up and forget things."

"Yes, that's what I keep telling myself, but I can't shake this feeling…" Mrs. Weasley trailed off.

"If Ron doesn't hear from him soon, we'll do something," Mr. Weasley said reassuringly.

Mrs. Weasley nodded, biting her lip, and waved her wand at the tea pot. It flew over and re-filled their mugs with boiling tea.

"Mum? Dad?"

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley both looked up to see their youngest son hovering in the doorway to the kitchen, looking tentative.

"What is it, Ronnie?" Mrs. Weasley asked, ever the eye for noticing something wrong with her children.

Ron shuffled forward and sank into a chair opposite his parents. "You know how you said Harry could come and stay this summer?"

Mr. Weasley exchanged a look with his wife before turning back to his son. "Yes?" he prompted.

"Well…" Ron began hesitantly. "There're some things I think you should know before he gets here – if he ever answers any of my letters," he added in more than slight frustration.

"Like what sort of things?" Mrs. Weasley inquired, sharing another brief glance with her husband. She remembered the few snippets about Harry's family from Ron's letters, and the way her son was acting, she doubted it was just that Harry didn't like mashed peas.

"Like he doesn't really like being touched," Ron said. "I mean, if you even just put your hand on his shoulder, he'll go all rigid. He's just not a touchy sort of person and, well…" Ron trailed off, thinking of the rib-cracking hugs and good-natured swats his mother liked to dole out in excess.

"Alright, try not to touch him," Mrs. Weasley said, already thinking habits with her own children might make this hard. The poor boy just always seemed so alone…

"And, no yelling," Ron added, looking seriously at his parents, particularly his mother. "At least try not to go berserk in front of Harry. He... doesn't like yelling. It sort of shakes him up a bit, unless he's used to you. But if you're gonna let the twins have it like you do at least twice a week, wait 'til Harry's not around. You might freak him out."

Mr. Weasley nodded, glancing at his wife. She did have quite a terrifying temper.

"One more thing," Ron went on. He sat forward and looked even more serious than before, on odd expression for their usually-laid-back son. "Harry sometimes has nightmares. I don't just mean like, monster-under-your-bed sort of nightmares. I mean like nightmares about You-know-who and his parents and… stuff like that. So don't be too surprised if you hear him screaming in the middle of the night."

"Oh, the poor boy," Mrs. Weasley couldn't help but say, covering her mouth with her hand.

Ron looked from his mother to his father, still sporting that uncharacteristically serious expression. "Just… just remember that, okay? No touching, no yelling, and nightmares."

"Of course, son," Mr. Weasley assured him.

"Right," Ron nodded, getting awkwardly to his feet again. "I just… it's important, okay? I mean, most of the time, Harry's completely normal, but sometimes… he's not. And you needed to know if he's coming to stay."

**A/N: How was that? I think I'm going to make this a three-part set. Two more conversations Ron has that show he's got Harry's back. Anyways, I'd LOVE to know what you think, so please, please, please review! :) **


	2. Bill and Charlie

**A/N: Hey! Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Wow, you guys are awesome! Here's another chapter, another conversation. Kind of along the same lines, but hopefully with enough of a different spin to be interesting. **

"So this is weird, right?" Charlie Weasley said over his shoulder as he flopped down on what he was pretty sure was George's bed with a colossal groan of bedsprings.

Bill glanced over at him, his lanky frame sprawled over the other bed, a magazine Charlie knew only too well was only charmed to read _Quidditch Illustrated_ dangling from one hand.

"A bit weird," he agreed nonchalantly. "I mean, we haven't been home like this in, what has been now? Three years?"

Charlie nodded. "I keep thinking we'll have to chase Fred and George out of our stuff and pretend we can't see Ron and Ginny being spies."

"But Ronnie's closeted away in his room writing to his girlfriend and the famous Harry Potter, Ginny's probably nicking one of our brooms right now to go for an unauthorized fly, and I got this magazine from Fred's stuff," Bill grinned, waving the disguised magazine around. "Our baby brothers are growing up, Charlie."

Charlie raised an impressed eyebrow. "I suppose they learn from the best. But no kidding about the growing up stuff. Can you believe a sane person actually hired Perce?"

Bill snorted. "Yeah, his credentials are a mile high. The real question is how long they'll be able to stand him. From the sound of it, he's already so far up his boss's –"

A knock interrupted Bill's next words. Bill hastily chucked the magazine under the bed while Charlie, snickering, went to open the door.

"Ron?" he said in surprise as the door swung back to reveal his youngest brother shifting slightly nervously from foot to foot on the landing. "What's up?"

"Think I could have a word?" Ron asked, sliding past Charlie into the twins' bedroom and perching on the desk.

Bill and Charlie exchanged raised eyebrows.

"Sure," Bill said curiously, straightening up.

Ron took a breath as though steeling himself before starting to speak. "So you know my friends are coming with us to the Quidditch World Cup, yeah?"

"Yup," Charlie said bemusedly.

"Well, Hermione's arriving tomorrow and we're getting Harry the day before the match whether his aunt and uncle like it or not, and… there's just some things you need to know." Ron looked up at his brothers seriously.

Bill and Charlie exchanged another look. It was rare for either of them to see their youngest brother serious at all. That was normally Percy's territory. And what did he mean 'whether Harry's aunt and uncle liked it or not'? Were they planning on kidnapping him or something if he wasn't allowed to go?

"Alright, shoot," Bill said finally, turning back to Ron.

"Well, first of all, don't be weird around him," Ron began.

"I won't be, but Charlie can't help it," Bill said slyly. A pillow came soaring across the room to smack him in the face.

"Not what I mean," Ron said impatiently. "I mean don't treat him like The-Boy-Who-Lived. Don't act like he's famous. He's just my friend, Harry, got it?"

Ron sounded so authoritative that Bill and Charlie had to work hard to hide smirks. It was just too easy to imagine their six-year-old brother using that tone trying to boss them around. But obviously this was something Ron wanted them to take seriously, so Charlie nodded and Bill said " 'Course. Mum'd give us a tongue lashing if we were out of line."

"But you know what _everyone _does the first time they meet him?" Ron went on. "They look right at his scar first. Don't do that, he hates it."

"Promise," Charlie said, crossing his heart.

Ron rolled his eye at his brother. "I mean it, Charlie. How would you like it if the first thing everyone did when they saw you was stare at your forehead?"

"We won't even look at his scar, Ron," Bill assured his brother. "Is that all you wanted to tell us?"

"No," Ron mumbled. "There's some other stuff. Harry, well, he's a little jumpy sometimes. Like around loud noises or if you touch him. He doesn't really like people touching him. Especially if he doesn't know you're there."

Bill and Charlie nodded, glancing at each other again out of the corners of their eyes.

"And, if you guys are gonna be mental and, you know, wrestle with each other and make up war cries and stuff, can you maybe get it out of your system now or wait until Harry has a chance to get used to you? Only shouting sort of freaks him out unless he's used to you."

"Blimey, he's a complicated bloke," Charlie commented, running a hand through his hair.

Ron shrugged.

"He's alright. He really is normal. I just don't want you lunatics scaring away my best mate," he added, smirking at his brothers, for the first time dropping his seriousness.

"If you haven't managed to yet, I think we'll be okay," Bill shot back, leaning forward to cuff Ron round the head.

Ron dodged out of the way, grinning. "Maybe. Just keep in mind what I said, yeah?"

"Sure thing," Charlie nodded.

"Yeah, not a problem," Bill added.

Satisfied, Ron nodded to his brothers and shuffled out of the room, looking like he was relieved to have gotten that out of the way.

Bill and Charlie looked at each other again.

"Well, that's a side of ickle Ronniekins I've never seen before," Charlie commented. "It's like he's getting _responsible_ and _thoughtfull_."

"Weird, right?" Bill agreed."Did you have a hard time not seeing the little six-year-old who used to come banging in here to tell us no one was allowed to touch his stuff anymore 'cause it always got broken?" 

Charlie nodded. "It's like he grew up without us."

"I reckon he did," Bill said quietly. "Him and Ginny both."

They were quiet for a moment. Then Charlie said, "What d'you think's… up with Harry? I mean, from what Dad said last summer when we all came to see you and the way Ron was talking just now. He said Dad's going to pick him up from his relatives 'whether they like it or not'."

"I dunno," Bill shrugged. "But the kid's an orphan, isn't he? I mean, you don't really think about the person behind the story until you actually meet him, but I can't imagine having your parents killed when you're a baby is an easy thing to deal with. And from what Mum and Dad and the twins have let on, Harry's biggest concerns at school aren't always exams and Quidditch matches. I suppose being his best mate makes you grow up a bit."

"Ron's doing us proud, isn't he?" Charlie murmured, running a hand through his hair. "Blimey, I just sounded like granddad. But he's got to be pretty loyal if he's got the guts to come in here and tell his big brothers the score when it comes to his friend."

"Yeah, I reckon Harry Potter got pretty lucky with Ronnie as one of his best friends," Bill said, smiling slightly.

**A/N:So what did you think of that? One more conversation to go! Any guesses who it might be with? :D stay tuned!**


	3. Ginny

**A/N: So here it is! The third chapter! Some of you guessed who it would be, but there were a lot of different answers. To be honest, I liked them all! But this is what was planned. You did give me some ideas though, so check the A/N: down at the bottom for more info! :D **

**Also, these aren't my characters. None of them. I own nothing!**

The first chance Ron saw, he grimaced, closed his eyes, and leapt.

Ginny was, miraculously, it seemed of late, alone. Harry was exiled to the dungeons for his Saturday morning detentions with Snape for what had happened to Malfoy, (Ron could not feel too sorry for Malfoy, since it sounded like he'd been trying to torture Harry at the time) and Hermione was, unsurprisingly, ensconced in some deep and dusty recess of the library, researching Merlin-knew-what. And, with all the other fifth-years bent feverishly over books and notes, frantically studying for their impending exams, this left Ginny on her own.

She had spread her books out over a table beside the window of the common room in an effort to enjoy all the sunlight she could trapped inside, and kept glancing longingly out at the grounds as she read through an early section of _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_.

A shadow loomed over the page, blocking her much-desired sunshine.

"Something I can do for you, Ron?" Ginny asked, looking up to see her brother and trying not to sound impatient at the interruption (exams were coming up much faster than she would like and she was starting to get an anxious knot in her stomach).

Ron rocked back on his heels, looking awkward.

"Think I could talk to you for a bit?" he asked, not looking at her.

"What about?" she asked suspiciously, a vague dread settled heavily in her stomach.

Ron's ears turned red. "Harry," he muttered.

Anger flared in her. Why was it that her brothers thought they were involved in her dating life? But Ginny quickly snuffed it out with a grudging resignation. She couldn't say she hadn't been expecting this. Harry _was _Ron's best friend.

"Right," Ginny sighed. "Might as well get it out of our systems," she muttered.

Ron glanced around at the groups of students chatting, working, and laughing around them in close hearing-range, so many with a keen ear for eavesdropping when it came to Harry lately.

"You mind coming up to our dormitory? Only I don't want to be overheard."

Ginny tried to stay out of her brothers' rooms whenever possible, having come across far too many dirty socks and fake bugs that had spilled over into the rest of the Burrow, but appreciating the necessity of discretion, followed Ron up the boys' staircase anyway. To her relief, the boys' dormitory was not nearly the disaster zone Ron usually lived in at home. The beds were made, stray sweet wrappers were picked up, and most of the laundry had made it into a hamper. She supposed having Hous-Elves and close living quarters tended to help.

Ron threw himself onto his bed, plopping back to stare at the canopy above him as Ginny slowly lowered herself onto the edge of the mattress beside him, gazing at him steadily.

After a minute passed in silence, she grew impatient. "Well? What is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Ron let out a gusty breath and propped himself up on an elbow, rubbing a hand sheepishly through his hair.

"You're dating Harry now," Ron stated obviously.

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "Yes. I am."

"It's just… Ginny –"

But she headed him off. "If you're going to try to dictate my social life, you can save your breath," she told him evenly, lifting her chin ad setting her jaw. "I've told you before, Ron; it is none of your business who I go out with or what I do with them."

"I'm not trying to 'dictate your social life'," Ron said with an edge of anger. "And besides, when you're dating my best mate, it becomes my business. Harry isn't like the rest of the blokes you've dated."

"I've only had two other boyfriends, Ron," Ginny huffed, but Ron spoke over her, sitting upright now and looking at her more seriously than Ginny was accustomed to.

"Look Gin, Harry's different," he told her, his tone effectively subduing her former irritation. "He's a part of the family, and no matter what happens between the two of you, he's always going to be around. So if you two screw things up and this whole thing turns into a disaster, you're not going to be able to run away from it."

Ginny swallowed. In the glow of them getting together, she had not stopped to consider what it might be like if things ended. Had she expected them to end up married and living happily ever after just a couple of weeks of dating? Or had she assumed that war and death would be more likely to end their relationship than a messy break up? But Ron, who had paused to let his words sink in, was going on now and Ginny fled from those thoughts.

"And there's no guarantee that the whole family will take your side of things," Ron continued. "And if they did, think what that would be doing to Harry? He'd be out of a family because of all of this. Do you want to see that happen to him again? Where do you think he'd go?

"And don't forget that Hermione's Harry's best friend, too. I don't know how much sympathy you can expect from her if things get rough. It'd be a tough spot to find yourself in."

"I realize that," Ginny said quietly. It was true, though she hadn't given much thought to it until Ron had laid out all the potentially-explosive possibilities. "But this isn't some drama-production rubbish like Mum listens to on the wireless. Harry and I are mature enough to deal with things rationally, and, unlike Cho Chang, I am capable of seeing Harry as a normal person."

"But that's just it," said Ron, leaning forward. "Harry's not a normal person."

"Of course he is!" Ginny exclaimed, shocked that Ron, who had always seemed to see through the glittering vale of fame before, was suddenly pulling it out.

But her brother only shook his head. "No, Ginny he's not. I reckon there are three stages when it comes to the way people look at Harry. At first they're like everyone else, all staring and gaping like fish and they just see the famous name. But if you actually spend a little time with him, you figure out he's not that much different from any normal person, and that's where people like to stop 'cause they think they're something special for getting past the fame. But if you look hard enough, you start to see he's just a normal kid who's had to deal with a hell of a lot."

Ginny did not need to ask what Ron meant by 'a hell of a lot', but he went on anyway.

"You still have nightmares about your first year, yeah?" he asked. "Well, Harry was there too, and even though you got the worse end of things by a long shot on that one, Harry's also got the end of our first year and the dementors making him hear his parents' murders and the graveyard…. Then there's the everything that happened at the Ministry and after… And that's not even touching on what the Dursleys were like to him or the publicity crap the Ministry keeps chucking at him. I mean sometimes I don't know how he keeps on going the way he does. The world's asked him to be a lot stronger than it had a right to."

Ron lapsed into silence, staring vaguely at the bedpost behind Ginny's head. She sat, slightly open-mouthed, not least because of this profound statement coming out of _Ron's _mouth. It wasn't as though this was anything new to her either, but to accumulate it like that…. She had once been brusque with Harry for allowing her possession by Voldemort to slip his mind, but it was easy, in the flow of ordinary days, to forget past traumas like this, at least temporarily.

"Harry makes it easy to forget," Ron said, breaking into her thoughts as if he'd been reading them. "I mean, most of the time he _is _normal and you don't really think about it. But then something happens and all of a sudden you remember. He's been through a hell of a lot, Ginny, and if you add one more thing to that list, I swear–"

"You make it sound like I'm going to rip his heart out and stomp on it," Ginny interrupted coolly. "Is that what you think I'm going to do? I actually do care about Harry, you know, outside of everything else; he's my friend, too."

She delivered the last line with such fierce conviction that Ron looked sheepish.

"Yeah, I know. Sorry…" he muttered, rubbing the back of his head. "So, taking all of that into account, you two are actually going to give this a serious try?"

"Yes,, I think that's the general understanding between us," Ginny nodded, still eyeing Ron reproachfully for his insinuations.

"Right," he nodded, taking a breath with the air of rolling up his sleeves in preparation for the difficult part. "Then there's some things you need to know."

He bit his lip as if trying to figure out where to begin and Ginny waited patiently, something in her brother's expression melting any coolness or defensiveness she might still have been harboring. She could tell this was an important conversation.

"Harry… I know him better than you do, differently than you do. He's like a sponge for guilt and he doesn't ever tell you what's going on in his head. Course it doesn't really matter 'cause you can pretty much guess it by his face and he's pretty predictable in the emotion department. But don't expect him to be very open about that. Maybe it will be different since you're his girlfriend and apparently bloke's are supposed to tell their girlfriends stuff like that, at least that's what Lavender was always whining about" – he grimaced – "But I don't really see how girlfriends are so much different from everyone else you care about except you can snog them."

Before Ginny could reprove of his complete lack of tact and romantic grace, Ron was moving on.

"Either way, I don't see Harry letting anyone in anytime soon, and that's something you've just got to deal with. It's not personal, it's just Harry.

"And don't be too disappointed if those fan-girl fairytales don't work out how you always dreamed."

At Ginny's indignant sputter, Ron rolled his eyes.

"I was forced to walk you down the aisle when we were little and you pretended to marry Harry Potter," he reminded her. "I know you got over that, but just don't get so wrapped up in the fairytale and forget the real person behind it."

It was more imploring than advice or warning, and it was for this reason that Ginny merely nodded and held her tongue.

Ron paused before continuing, going rather red and not looking at her. "Look, I really don't want to know what the two of you get up to when your… alone, but Harry's not exactly very keen on human contact all the time…" he kept his eyes carefully on his fingernails as he continued, and Ginny was grateful because she was as flushed as he was. "He's loads better than he used to be, you know, back in first and second year. Gotten used to it, I reckon. But, just, don't be all that surprised if he shrugs your arm off once in a while or, you know… It's not you and it doesn't mean he doesn't want you around, it's just..."

Ron trailed off, giving up on the subject, face flaming as brightly as his sister's.

"Right," Ginny said, clearing her throat. She stood up. "If that's all…"

"One more thing," Ron said, looking up at her, serious once again. "Listen, Gin, you're gonna have to be okay with maybe, not being the focus of Harry's attention. He's got a lot of … stuff… on his plate," he said vaguely, "and, well, you might take a back seat to it. You might have to… to put your own issues away for a while because Harry's tend to eclipse everyone else's around him.

"It's not his fault," Ron hastened to add. "Harry's about the least self-centered person I can think of most of the time, but he's just got bigger things to deal with, and being his friend or his girlfriend, sometimes it means being less important. You make sacrifices."

Ron's eyes seemed far away by the end of this speech, and it scared Ginny slightly. It seemed like he was thinking about something specific, like he was almost warning her…

"Do you know something? Something the rest of us outside your trio don't?" she asked sharply.

Ron snapped back to the present. "No," he said automatically. "I've just been around Harry for six years. I know how things go."

They stared at each other for a long moment, Ginny trying to see past his guarded exterior, Ron trying to look as though there was nothing more to his words. Ginny looked away first. There were always secrets. It was part of the bigger things Ron had talked about. If Harry wanted her to know, he'd tell her, but Ron never would.

"You're a good friend," she told him after a moment. "To look out for Harry like this. I was afraid you'd be all big-brother-protective like you were with Dean and Michel. But at least I can count on one person not flipping over this. God… wait 'til Fred and George find out. We'll never hear the end of it, though they'll be more amused than protective."

Ron broke into a grin at the thought of his family hearing about all of this. He wasn't sure what they'd make of it, but Fred and George would certainly make it interesting. He stood up and the pair of them headed for the common room again, Ron unbelievably relieved this was over.

But as they reached the door to the stairs, he stopped Ginny and looked down at her.

"Look, I know I'm supposed to be looking out for you and everything – and believe me, Ginny, I try to as much as you let me – but I'm Harry's brother, too…"

Ginny nodded, smiling slightly, and slipped past down the spiral staircase.

Ron ran a hand through his hair, looking up at the ceiling. Then he nodded to himself and followed her down the stairs.

It was the truth.

**A/N: I hope that was a satisfying final installment! I know it was kinda long, but I felt like it had to be. It's really the most important conversation in my opinion. So many people write all of Ginny's brothers as over-protective and, you know, sitting Harry down for a chat about being careful with their baby sister, but I find that kind of ooc and if you know Harry at all, not really necessary. Ron is happier with Harry going out with Ginny than any of her other boyfriends, he says so himself and only registers shock and resignation. The kissing thing in DH was a special occasion since they'd already broken up and Ron was pretty sheepish afterwards. Basically I feel like this side of things is under-represented. **

**I think Ron comes off as a little OOC in this, you know, spilling out all that stuff to Ginny, but I figure he'd be a little more open because this is important and Ginny's his sister and all of that. I don't really think Ron is this vocal about his perceptions, but we don't know for sure what he's like with Ginny, so… :D it makes for a better chapter, anyway. **

**Now about those ideas I mentioned. You guys all had really great guesses (thanks for reviewing by the way! ;D) and I think it would be really interesting to see conversations like the ones you suggested. Unfortunately this is going to be the last chapter for this story, but if FF will let me post it, I might do a sort of companion piece. It would be involving both Ron and Hermione and would have a slightly different tone to it, but it would basically be conversations focusing on what good friends they are behind the scenes, like this. Let me know if you're interested! :D I love your thoughts!**


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